Cleveland schools' tentative deal with teachers will save about $7 million to restore some cut programs

View full sizePlain Dealer fileA tentative agreement between the Cleveland school board and teachers would allow the district to restore some cut programs.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The tentative deal under consideration by the Cleveland school board and teachers would give the district about $7 million to restore some of the about $13 million in cuts that the board made in October.

The proposal comes from a federal mediator who met with representatives of the district and Cleveland Teachers Union late last month. Although it reduces teachers' pay and increases their health care costs, it avoids a simple cut in base pay.

Teachers will be paid what they had negotiated previously for the 2010-11 school year, without the wage concessions they had agreed to take last year.

Instead, the proposal achieves most of its savings by not paying teachers for 3.5 days they were previously paid for -- two professional development days and 1.5 for calamity or snow days.

The plan puts on hold the district's efforts to sign a longer contract using a merit pay system, instead of the current one that bases raises on experience and the degrees a teacher has. The district and union will instead form a joint committee in February to discuss that issue.

Though the proposed deal includes $2.7 million in health care and other savings for the 2012-13 school year, teacher pay then is still to be negotiated. District officials project a $64 million deficit that year.

"What we needed at this time was a solution to some immediate needs facing our community," schools Chief Executive Officer Eric Gordon said.

The October cuts included the planned elimination in January of all high school busing and preschool and cutting all spring sports except baseball and softball, which are independently funded. The cuts also included layoffs of safety and security officers and reduced purchase of textbooks.

Gordon will recommend what cuts to restore to the school board on Dec. 13.

The district had announced the tentative agreement Dec. 2 but had declined to release it or details about it until Wednesday.

CTU President David Quolke could not immediately be reached for comment on Wednesday, but said in the Dec. 2 announcement that the agreement was not perfect, but fair for teachers.

"The district's budget crisis is real and the CTU has stepped to the plate with a portion of the shared sacrifice," he said.

Mayor Frank Jackson, who had pushed for the change to merit pay, declined to comment. Spokeswoman Andrea Taylor said the mayor would discuss the deal after teachers and the school board have voted.

CTU will present the proposal to all teachers on Dec. 13 in two meetings at East Technical High School and on Dec. 14 at two meetings at the Garrett Morgan School of Science. Teachers will then vote on the proposal from Dec. 15 through 21.

The school board will likely schedule a special meeting to vote on it shortly after the teacher vote is finished.

The district has been trying to trim costs by reducing pay with all employees in recent months. On Tuesday, the school board approved a contract with custodians to cut their pay 5.5 percent the rest of this school year and next year. That will save the district $329,000 this school year, Gordon told the board.

It is also negotiating with several smaller unions as well as Teamsters Local 436, which represents the district's safety and security officers. Negotiations with the Teamsters continue after the recent layoff of 75 security guards - nearly one third of the district's security staff.

The deal with teachers proposed by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service on Nov. 30 would save the district$2.3 million by not paying teachers for 1.5 calamity days. If the district has taken none of those days by March, teachers will simply lose that pay.

Teachers will also give up nearly $3.1 million in pay they would have received for two professional development days.

Teachers' higher monthly payments for health care will give the district another $783,000 and eliminating extra pay for serving in position slike department chair or special education liaison will savethe district nearly $772,000.

In addition to that nearly $7 million in savings, the mediator said teachers should get some credit for what the district has saved by using substitutes to fill open teaching slots. For negotiation purposes, the mediator credited teachers with another$800,000 in savings.

District officials said the actualsavings from using substitutes is much higher. Though those savings were independent ofthe proposed agreement, Interim Chief Financial Officer Dennis Kubick said, they will help to restore cuts the board made in October.

The scheduledcuts yet to be made include: $727,000 by reducing the number of principals and assistant principals, $2,447,000 from eliminating summer school, $741,000 from eliminating preschool and $568,000 from eliminating spring sports except baseball and softball, which are funded by the Cleveland Indians.

In community surveys, residents named preschool as the highest priority to keep out of the scheduledcuts.

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